1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus for controlling at least one image capturing apparatus connected via a communication means and a control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, there are camera systems configured to enable cameras that are placed respectively under different shooting conditions and at different angles with respect to an object to perform a collaborative operation using a communication cable, a wireless communication apparatus, or the like. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-252568 discloses a camera system for enabling shooting of an object by operating a plurality of image capturing apparatus using one control apparatus via wireless communication, and displaying the shot image data with the control apparatus.
However, although a system using wireless communication is easy to handle compared to a system using wired communication since it does not need to be connected via a communication cable, such a system is easily affected by disturbances and the like, and thus is inferior in terms of communication reliability. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-252568 described above, although a technique with regard to cooperative shooting to operate a plurality of image capturing apparatus using one control apparatus is disclosed, there is no description of maintaining communication reliability against disturbances and the like. In order to solve the problem with regard to communication reliability, although a method for achieving reliability by performing communication retransmission processing and the like is conceivable, since the time period necessary for wireless communication becomes longer, it has been difficult to secure both a response and communication reliability.